A community of Physics Phans!
Jul 15th, 2009
As students of physics, we learn when studying Special Relativity that the speed of light is constant. When we study geometric optics, we learn that the speed of light slows down in a medium. This seeming contradiction leads to a completely understandable misconception about the nature of light.
Jul 6th, 2009
9/11 Troofers like to think that they have “researched” the collapse of the Twin Towers, when most have done little more that read a few articles on Alex Jone-like websites, watched a few YouTube videos, and romped around in Troofer forums/echo-chambers. I’m a researcher by profession, so I can assure you that none of these [...]
Apr 20th, 2009
I was looking at search terms that lead people to this website from Google and stumbled across this one: “the work done by the magnetic field on the charged particle during the semicircular trip.” Someone obviously was interested in how much work a magnetic field could “do”, and Google was kind enough to point them [...]
Aug 16th, 2006
Electromagnetic radiation (or light) sometimes behaves as a particle and sometimes it behaves as a wave. The same observations are made with regular particles like electrons. This apparent contradiction has led many to question the foundation of modern science, specifically quantum theory. How can something be A in one instance and be B in another? [...]
Aug 30th, 2005
I will begin writing short posts each week about common misconceptions students have about basic ideas in physics. This week I’d like to address the concept of force.
Most students think they know what a force is after finishing an introductory course in physics. But most students carry away several misconceptions about the concept.
In a typical [...]